This & That – Page 3

Bamboo Hamper Light

Bamboo hampers that we often use for soiled laundry provide wonderful mood lighting with a light bulb inside. Limit the wattage for fire prevention and of course a fluorescent bulb might be safer, less expensive to burn and offer a different lighting atmosphere. Use Christmas lights for color.

For fire prevention purposes stabilize the light bulb inside the hamper so that it does not touch any of the basket’s surfaces.
For a cord use the ones like for the Christmas tree that have a foot button. Hampers can be dyed with Rit Dye if desired.

Credit Type Cards: You Keep The Interest

Sometimes we get in the mail credit card offers or offers with cards from other entities promoting membership or discounts.
We might even have an old expired card from the library around the house.
Do not throw them away but instead store them somewhere together as they are great tools for a variety of applications.
You will notice they come in different thicknesses and flexibility and their surgical uses are endless and up to your imagination.

• Cards are great to scrape delicate objects without leaving behind a ferrous trail.
• A paper towel wrapped around the card is good for buffing and at times for sanding.
• With sand paper you can sand small tight grooves and the card’s flexibility also allows it to bend and sand something with several curvatures, such as molding.
• They can be used to shave excess amounts of spackle or joint compound when used at an angle in small surgical jobs. Yes, one could use a 6” knife but that does not feel the same nor allows the dexterity of the card. Shaving the ridges reduces the amount of air borne dust caused by sanding.
• Fantastic for applying spackle in curves or anywhere and having four edges it allows having the spackle on two opposite sides. It also allows delivery of the spackle with one edge and smoothen the spackle with another clean edge.
• The cards can be cleaned easily during use with two fingers or a small paper towel.
• When the need arises they can be handled as a pencil rather than a putty knife and they can be easily cut with scissors to fit your purpose.
• When applying pictures on an album each of the card’s corners can hold one of the photo mounts that will hold the picture. A simple rotation of the card in between the fingers can deliver very rapidly and speed up the process when adhering hundreds of photos to an album.
• They are great also to be used as a throw away but of course we would recycle the plastic.
Of the cards shown above looks like the American Express ones are the most used. They are somewhat thin and flexible. The Discover is the most flexible.

The Gancio

Not necessarily a new idea, this is a silly little tool born out of necessity. It consists of a serious handle from an old tool such as a shovel and a sturdy hook at the end of it. Its purpose is to be maneuvered through the tight turns of twigs and branches to knock down fruits such as lemons from a tree.
It is also very effective in knocking down dead branches from high places in trees that produce zillions of dead little twigs such as the Camellia.
It works well for raking the fallen branches because hooking one branch will pull the others. It actually removes and pulls to your side dead branches that might hang over the neighbor’s yard. It eliminates using a ladder in most cases.

Tips:
With a hook at 90 degrees, it can be used in garages to hang items up high and out of the way.
See http://www.flashknow.com/hanging-clothes/
The sturdier it is the better.
Pre drill the hole.

Dish Soap Dispenser

Is the built in dish soap dispenser at your sink broken? Are you still reaching under the sink for the bottle?
The little contraption shown below has been pumping for 15 years. It has been performing flawlessly, precisely and consistently delivering from a tiny drop to a mother load.

The contraption is an old Colgate bottle crossed with a pump from some of the Costco brand toiletries.
The hero here is the pump.
It has a large, long and strong straw which makes it nice when cut to size.
This pump will fit many types of plastic bottles.
Shown are a few bottle alternatives that will work. The labels peel off and clean easily with paint thinner, therefore making the clear bottles the preferred ones. Pour different color dish soaps slowly to acquire the shown mix.